Summary

The book is divided into three parts: Confidential Files, Recovered Correspondence, and Suppressed Memories.

Part 1: Confidential Files

Confidential Files is an epistle about WICKED.

It starts with an e-mail from Kevin Anderson, former chancellor of WICKED, sent on 220/6/24 at 09:36 (the time is always in a 24-hour format) to his partners and was entitled "Welcome". He wrote that those in charge of the Twelve Sectors were to report back to the Council whenever a suitable subject was found. He also wrote that the Psychs and doctors told him that they would find 60 percent of the patterns they needed with the incidents they had planned.

The next message, also written by Anderson, was sent to his partners on 221/11/26, 10:56 and was entitled "Elite Candidate". He wrote about how this subject was highly intelligent and how he had the potential for incredible physical abilities. He wrote that they named this subject "Thomas" after Thomas Edison, for they believed that he would go on to achieve great things.

On 224/9/6, at 11:08, Anderson wrote to his partners again, with "Implants" as the subject of his e-mail. He wrote that all brain devices, including the Swipe trigger, the manipulators, and the telepathy tools were successfully implanted, although seven died during the surgery.

After this, a transcript of Subject A1 (Teresa) and Subject A2 (Thomas) talking was shown, where they were both nine years old. In the transcript, they wondered about why they were separated from some children that Teresa heard in the cafeteria, which they both didn't go to as their food was sent to their rooms, and also talked about the strange aches they experienced deep down in their skull. They stopped talking when Teresa heard someone coming.

Anderson wrote another e-mail to his partners, entitled "Telepathy Progress" on 228/2/13, at 18:42 for those that weren't directly involved in "Project Silence", writing about how valuable the data they gathered from the 4 subjects with implanted, telepathic abilities was. He also wrote that it was important that the Elites, as the 4 subjects were called, never learned the truth as their reactions to the upcoming Variables might be affected, and that they had to make sure that the Elites only thought that they had this telepathic ability for the purpose of designing and building the experiment.

On 229/6/10, 23:29, Anderson wrote an e-mail to his partners entitled "Spread of the Flare". He wrote that although it would be ideal to stick to their five-year timeline of study and analysis, they would have to shorten the length of the experiment to 2 years before sending in the catalyst subjects. He also wrote that he didn't believe that they could get all they required patterns with their planned Variables, which would force them to implement the second phase that they tentatively planned for. He then wrote that all partners would be having a mandatory testing with the Psychs every other day to see if the Flare had taken over them, and that those who had gone past the point of no return would be decommissioned.

The last message that Anderson sent to his partners was entitled "My Farewell to You All". It was sent on 231/5/4, at 13:43. He apologized for not saying farewell in purpose as the Flare had taken over him and the use of the Bliss wasn't allowed in the organization. He wrote that he had succumbed to the Flare more quickly than the rest of the original group, and that he was decommissioned and would be replaced as chancellor by Ava Paige.

On 231/5/5, 07:16, Anderson wrote another message with his two remaining fingers but failed to send it. He wrote that they should stop the experiment and let the Immunes have the world, instead of giving everyone false hope.

Thomas sent a message to the replacements of the original members of WICKED, entitled "The Purge" on 231/6/22, 11:37. He wrote that he had taken responsibility for the Purge, which was basically killing the original members of WICKED who had succumbed to the Flare and that Ava Paige was chancellor, effective immediately.

The last page of Confidential Files was an e-mail, sent by Chancellor Ava Paige on 232/1/28, 07:21 entitled "Regarding Chuck." Apparently some members of WICKED were horrified by Chuck's death, seeing as he was a little boy, and Paige wrote that though it was hard, they had had to do it to stimulate the patterns they needed. She also wrote that they had shown Chuck mercy, as he wasn't a potential Candidate and that his death would've been worse later on if they hadn't killed him.

Part 2: Recovered Correspondence

Recovered Correspondence, like Confidential Files, is an epistle. It is about the Post-Flares Coalition (PFC) how the decision to release the Flare was made. Some of the content and characters in this portion of the story also appear in The Kill Order.

This part starts with a note that says that material from several hard drives were recovered from the former Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (AMRIID) headquarters.

The next part is flyer for all the survivors of the sun flares from Flares Information Recovery Endeavor (FIRE), calling all municipal units, police agencies, social services and any surviving governmental entities for help and asking those who read the message to send word back to the FIRE headquarters in Anchorage, Alaska.

On the flyer, it was written that FIRE was composed of representatives of the North American Alliance, Russia, the European Union, the United States of Africa, Mexico, and other countries that suffered to extreme extents due to the sun flares. It read that FIRE's first task was to get world leaders together and collect information, then establish governing units, organize police forces, and make food and shelter coordination plans.

The next page is a PFC memorandum, sent to all board members by John Michael, chancellor of the PFC, on 217/11/28, 21:46, entitled "Population Concerns". He wrote that the sun flares had lessened their resources, and that there wasn't enough for the population. A meeting was scheduled to share ideas of how to fix the problem.

The next message is from Katie McVoy, sent to Michael and entitled "Potential". She wrote that the AMRIID had a certain virus in their underground containment system that was designed to shut the brain down painlessly that slowly decreases in infection rate as it passes from host to host. Michael sent a message back to her, with the same subject name, agreeing with her and asking for help in preparing a presentation.

On 219/02/12, 19:32, Michael sent another PFC memorandum to all board members, entitled EO draft, asking them to tell him what they thought about the Executive Order #13 of the PFC draft he wrote, which by recommendation of the PCC was considered top-secret. In read that the PFC was allowing the PCC to fully implement Population Control Initiative #1, which was releasing the virus.

McVoy sent Michael another e-mail, also entitled "Potential", writing about a radio message they heard from Lieutenant Larsson and Private Kibucho, whom they had stationed at Ground Zero EU. Kibucho said that half of those who had the virus were alive and had chopped his leg off, and Larsson saw him being eaten alive right before he was cornered by the infected people.

Lichliter, sent another message to Spilker entitled "Unbelievable" and wrote about how the virus had mutated and how the PFC should've listened to them.

McVoy sent another message to Michael, entitled "Some last words" about how they couldn't stop the spread of the virus, which the media had started called the Flare, and how there was a rumor about Immunes existing, who were the only hope for a cure.

On 220/05/01, 11:23, Michael sent a PFC memorandum to all board members entitled "Another Solution". First, he wrote about how the brain was being called the killzone, where the Flare did its damage and how the Immunes also had a nickname, which was Munie. Then, he wrote about how they needed to find a cure.

Part 3: Suppressed Memories

Suppressed Memories starts with Thomas' first memory of the Flare, which is of his father having it. The second part is when Frypan regains some memories of his own parents. The third part is Minho's Phase Three trial, where he is taken out of the room he was locked in by Assistant Director Janson (also known as Rat Man) and handed over to a man named Lincoln who gives him the test. Lincoln writes the names Thomas, Newt, Frypan, Aris, Harriet, Sonya, Teresa and Brenda on a board and tells Minho that the doctors decided that they needed to dissect the brains of those people and that Minho could only choose one person to save. Horrified, Minho repeatedly refuses to choose, even after Lincoln punches him in the face multiple times. Finally, Lincoln says that the test is over.